Chiltern Birder

I had a day in the Forest yesterday, walking and then a ride on the preserved railway. The trouble with woodland is that you don't get the rapid views of multiple species that you get in wetlands. However, after parking at the Nags Head reserve I walked down to the Lower Hide. The ponds were pretty well down to muddy pools and I was treated to the unusual site of what must have been a family of nuthatches bathing. I had lost the sense of scale through the bins and I wasn't sure what I was looking at until a robin hopped into view to give me a relative size. The real treat was a nuthatch working its way up an oak tree. I then walked through the forest to Bix Slade and down the line of the old tramway to the wharf on the old railway by Cannop Ponds. No manarin ducks this time but I did see tufties, moorhen, and both pied and grey wagtails. I followed the railway back to the road, crossed back over the Cannop Brook and planned to follow a forestry track back to the reserve. Howe...

With a nice clear brisk day it seemed like a good idea to go for a walk around the lakes at Rickmansworth. Bury Lake by the car park had its usual collection of mute swan, mallard, tufties and gadwall. At a distance away in the trees was what sounded like a ring necked parakeet but it was heading away so I didn't get a view. Moving onto the north side of Stockers Lake the low sun and clear sky made visibility difficult. The open water seemed pretty clear anyway but I couldn't make out any details although from the calls it was clear that there were no wigeon present this time. Once I reached the west side things became clearer. Come of the smnaller islands had been cleared of trees and undergrowth to make them suitable for ground nesting birds. A flock of around 30 lapwing were well hidden until they suddenly took to the air and spent several minutes wheeling around the lake before returning to land swooping past an inpurtbable heron. This more than made up for the lack of...

Yesterday I took advantage of an overcast morning to visit the College Lake reserve near Tring. The advantage of the cloud cover is the lack of reflected sunlight on the water so you can actually see the birds rather than just silhouettes. There were good displays of primroses around the edges of the paths but the most spectacular feature was the acrobatic display flights by the lapwings. There are quite a few pairs nesting on the islands so there were usually several birds in the air at the same time. There was the usual collection of waterfowl with shoveller, gadwall, tufties, mallard, coot, mute swans and both Candada and greylag geese. Remarkably well camoflaged on the shingle were some redshank, I could hear them but it was only when one took flight that I could find them and even then once I took my bins off the spot I couldn't be sure of finding them again. At home the badgers are still visiting but catching them on camera is still not as exciting as seeing one in the...

Escaped ornamentals can be a problem to identify but that wasn't the case with the black swan that I saw on Stockers Lake today. I almost missed it as it seems to spend far more time with its head down than a mute swan. Apart from that a walk around the lakes at Rickmansworth produced nothing exciting in terms of unusual species. There were plenty of tufties, pochard, coot, mallard, mute swans, cormorants and gadwall as well as a solitary shoveller. I passed a heron very close to the path who seemed quite unconcerned about my presence and was also lucky enough to see a great crested grebe swallowing a fish. Undergrowth had been cleared from some of the islands and one seemed to be full of lapwings. There are bird feeders by a couple of hides which were getting attention from blue and great tits and one also had a party of rats feeding on the discarded seeds underneath. Judging by the sizes I would guess a family party of two adults and two juveniles. On the wooded part of the...

I paid a return visit to Stockers Lake near Rickmansworth today with the benefit of a pair of wellingtons. It was an interesting visit, the lake had all the usual waterfowl with coot, tufted duck, mallard, gadwall, mute swans and herons. I didn't see any shoveller this time but the wigeon were a treat as I hadn't expected them on a lake without adjacent grazing and a real surprise were the red crested pochard which I had not seen in the wild before. At one point a row of stakes in the water, each one topped by a gull gave me the opportunity to include leg colour in identification but they were all black headed. From talking to other birders I seem to have missed some goldeneye and an escaped black swan. In the adjacent scrub there were the usual woodland birds with a small flock of redwing and a probably female reed bunting.

When I spotted that the forecast had changed and this afternoon would stay dry I decided to sample the lakes at Rickmansworth Aquadrome. Water levels were very high and some paths flooded. Bury Lake produced little of special interest with mute swans, tufted duck, mallard, coot. black headed gulls and a heron. The latter was close to the path keeping totally still and totally unfazed by passers by. He kept so still while I took a couple of pictures with my phone that I was beginning to think that it was a model but then he finally turned his head slightly. I wasn't wearing boots which made, the potentially more interesting, Stockers Lake mostly inaccessible but from the tarmac path on one side I did see a pair of shoveller and a pochard. The low sun made it difficult to identify most of the birds from that angle. I don't know if I was just unlucky or if they don't like the area but I didn't see any red kites. I had been wondering how far towards London they were sp...

Driving down the Chess Valley earlier today my attention was drawn to a pair of swans on the river and just beyond them on the bank was an egret. I couldn't take my eyes off the road to be sure of the species of course. I don't get along this section of the valley often enough to be sure if this is a vagrant or a resident in the area. The last one that I saw in the valley was seven years ago . Later, returning home via Latimer and Ley hill there was a deat muntjac by the road which would have provided good feeding for the kites if the lane wasn't so well trafficed. At home there has been no new variety although the regular flock of seven or eight long tailed tits always make enjoyable viewing on the feeder. With the recent wet weather there is now an excellent flow in the Chess above the Town Bridge and the mallards seem to have taken up long term residence. After the long dry spell, with a weir cutting off the upper reaches there are no fish visible any more.

A flock of long tailed tits provided a little variety in the garden today. They settled on the starling feeder for a little while but, naturally, flew away when I moved to see if anything was on the sunflower hearts. The River Chess is flowing well at the moment with the old mill leat coming down from Pednormead End carrying enough water to actually turn a water wheel. More is probably due to surface water after the recent heavy rain rather than any rising of the water table. In the mean time a pair of mallards and a moorhen had returned to he pool above the Town Bridge

A trip to Fishers Green didn't reveal any exciting rarities but did yield some suprises. There seemed to be gadwall everywhere, far more than the tufties or mallard, I don't think that I have ever seen such numbers before. I am not a compulsive list maker but while walking back to the car I did think that I should have been counting. They did prove to be much more timid than the more usual waterfowl. They would fly off if they became aware of me on the path even at quite long distances. Apart from that there were the usual suspects with coot, mute swans black headed gulls, great crested grebes, canada geese and cormorants as well as the mallards and a handful of tufted duck and only one pair of pochard. There had clearly been some late broods as there were juvenile coot and great crested grebe around. The latter were still in their striped plumage. An odd sight was Holyfield Weir which was lined from end to end by canada geese. A marked change from the usual row of assorted gul...